NextMN-UPF is an experimental 5G UPF implementation. This UPF is implemented in User Space, meaning it does not depend on Linux GTP module.

The following features are implemented:

• IPv4/IPv6 both in inner and outer PDUs (note: IPv6 is not implemented in Linux GTP module)
• PFCP Association Setup Procedure
• PFCP Session Establishment Procedure
• PFCP Session Modification Procedure
• PDRs/FARs, SDF Filters
• Interoperability with Free5GC (you can replace Free5GC's UPF container with NextMN-UPF container) (tested only with IPv4)
• Interoperability with UERANSIM (since 2022-06-24's version in UERANSIM master branch)
• Periodic display of the currently applied PFCP rules

Missing features:

• PFCP Session Deletion Procedure
• PDRs/FARs deletion
• BARs, MARs, URRs, QERs are not handled yet
• Gracefull shutdown procedure
• Any other advanced PFCP use

Other missing things because we are at early stages of development:

• Unit/Integration Tests (Not implemented) + CI/CD
• Testing full IPv6 deployment with UERANSIM+Free5GC integration
• Documentation (WIP)
• Performances (Not the current goal as long as it is decent)
• Storing Sessions/Rules in a database to be more efficient (currently everything is stored in RAM), and the Session/Rules research is not optimal

• golang
• make (optional)

• iproute2
• iptables

Simply run make build and make install.

If you plan using NextMN-UPF with Docker:

• The container required the NET_ADMIN capability;
• The container required the forwarding to be enabled (not enabled by the UPF itself);
• The tun interface (/dev/net/tun) must be available in the container.

This can be done in docker-compose.yaml by defining the following for the service:

cap_add:
    - NET_ADMIN
devices:
    - "/dev/net/tun"
sysctls:
    - net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

Louis Royer

MIT